My Lightroom 4 Doesn't Look Like Your Lightroom 4

In poking around forums, etc… I’ve seen a bunch of questions over the last few days about people not seeing the new Develop Module sliders in Lightroom 4 Beta (specifically the ones in the Basic Panel). In LR4, Adobe changed the Basic panel to include sliders that 1) Make more sense and, 2) Are way more powerful. However, because they’ve changed them so much you can indeed have two versions of the Basic panel because they couldn’t automatically switch older photos for you. So here’s the deal: Your Basic panel should like like the image below:

(click for larger view)

If it doesn’t, that means you’re editing a photo that was edited in an older version of Lightroom or Camera Raw. It’s easy enough to change though. Just scroll down to the Calibration panel in the Develop module. Under the Process setting make sure it reads 2012, not 2010.

Now you’ll be using the newest Lightroom stuff and you’ll be able to take advantage of the new sliders in the Basic panel.

Matt is the full-time Director of Education for Kelby Media Group and a Tampa-based photographer. He's the Editor-in-Chief of Lightroom Magazine, the lead instructor on the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom LIVE Seminar Tour and author of several best-selling Photoshop books. Matt also hosts the world's top Lightroom blog, LightroomKillerTips.com, where he's built up a massive library of Lightroom videos, presets and tips. In addition to teaching Photoshop, Lightroom and photography seminars around the world, he's an instructor at Photoshop World and one of the full-time staff writers for Photoshop User Magazine.

3 Comments

Dennis Zito

January 13, 2012

Hi Matt, Great Tip! I’ve set up a test catalog for LR4Beta so I saw the new sliders, which by the way, I love them! I’ve also used the new settings (sliders) for the adjustment brush and they are awesome! Oh, by the way, so far all my Nik and OnOne plug-ins are working okay.

Thanks for the tip! I know I would have flipped out if it had happened to me!

Good tip, Matt. Is there a way to run both versions at the same time in a side-by-side viewing? This makes it easier to see and comparae what is different and whether or not the changes are problematic compared to the older version.

Hey Gene,
No way to run both versions. If your photo starts in 2010 process version and you change it and apply Develop module changes to it, just hit your backslash key () and you can see a before after to see the difference.
Hope that helps